I would have to say I was pretty excited about today... Once again I booked us a private tour with a company incidentally called Private Tours in Turkey. Kagan (pronounced Khan as in Genghis) was our guide.
The sail into Istanbul is pretty spectacular as you watch the Blue Mosque , Ayia Sofia and Topkapi Palace pass by....The Celebrity Equinox had already arrived and we were followed by one of the Crystal cruise ships ( I think).
Kagan was there dockside the minute we stepped off the ship he quickly boarded us on our mini us to try and beat the crowds. He took us straight to the blue mosque. According to Kagan the queue was really short for Istanbul standards... so within 10 minutes we had taken off our shoes, Arnold donned his skirt and we were inside..... Kagan took us to the side where he sat us on the floor and gave a great run down on Islam, Turkey style.... A little more lenient than some of the Middle East countries we had already visited. This mosque was based on the design of Ayia Sophia and it was given its name due to the Blue tiles within.
From there he decided that our best plan of attack was to visit the grand bazaar early and then hit the other major sites in the afternoon ... this would hopefully be the opposite to all the other tours happening that day...
At the Grand bazaar we were given a brief orientation and a time to meet at a specific spot... all made simple enough that hopefully no one would get lost.... Kagan told us that yes the traders can be sharks but they bite nice.... and they did.... They would say “Come look in my shop” but never pushed you or harassed you.... Bargaining was once again the name of the game and by now has become a sport for us all..... They try to get you to buy and they do it with a smile and make it easy to have a laugh with them.... I would have to say our worst experience to date are those hawkers at the Pyramids. After a couple of purchases and a quick lunch we were back on the touring trail again...
Kagan said he will not tell us too many facts and figures but would tell us lots of stories of the places that we will visit. He said if we see an old building and he doesn’t say anything about it, it is because they are only 200 years old... he will only talk about buildings over 500 years old.... How old is our oldest building in Sydney!!
Our next stop was Topkapi Palace. At all the sites we were off to see now, Kagan’s special tour guide tag got us in through the VIP entrances which meant no queuing and walking straight in.... Here he took us straight to the Harem section of the palace and told us stories of how young girls between 3 -5 were chosen and groomed to become part of the sultans Harem....This was an honour for a family and when the girls left the Harem they left with some accumulated wealth of their own. The girls would not be presented to the Sultan until they reached the age of 18 where they became Concubines. They are given 7 years to impress the Sultan and hope that one day they become one of his favourites. This allowed them to stay after the 7 year time period otherwise they would have to leave the Harem....
Whilst here we also visited the Treasury where there are jewels on display of those treasures that were left behind after the last Sultan was deposed....
Everything is all in the same vicinity and we had a quick 20 minute walk to Ayia Sophia.... This started off as a church, then turned into a mosque and now stands as museum. Once again we had a guide take us into a site, make us stand to one side, then have us walk around a corner to be faced with the magnificence of this building.... It was another one of my wow moments and I can say I teared up in the disbelief that I was finally standing in this place.... One other OMG moment was as we were walking out and Garry ran it to an old family friend, Manuel from Sydney walking the other way....
Just when you though nothing else could wow you, we walked a little further up the street and we visited the underground Basilica Cistern. Built at the same time as Ayia Sophia....This served as an underground sewerage system. This must be the first evidence of recycling..... as you look at all the columns within this system, you note that they are all different, so they must of been leftovers from other sites. If that is not enough you find some columns are placed onto of other big rocks to make them tall enough to reach the ceiling.... The most amazing evidence of this are two columns that are propped up by 2 discarded sculptures of Medusa.... From the pictures you can see that they are not there as decoration but for necessity.
As we had been good tour followers all day, we were treated with another hour spend at the spice market. The colours and displays of spices and dried fruits are amazing and you can’t help but to buy something to take back.... Not just limited to spice there were lots of stalls that gave us the opportunity of last minute shopping.
This was another wonderful day....made so much better with decision to use a private guide during our visit... Having someone whisk you in and out of these sites really made our time in Istanbul so much more enjoyable.......
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